Here's some of my favorite writing, which also happens to be some of my more serious writing. If you came for the fun stuff, click here.

When you're #withher, but your dad's a trump supporter (new york magazine)

Marra, a 33-year-old physician who plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in November, wishes her dad would take a break from Facebook — at least until the election is over. Every day, he posts something about Donald Trump. Make America Great Again! Vote for Trump! Hillary is a liar! “It’s horrible,” she says. “He’s not just re-posting stuff — these are his own words, and he writes almost every single day.” (Read the full story here)

The Unique Horror of a Bulletproof Backpack (New York Magazine)

In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas high-school shooting in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday — the seventh deadly school shooting in the U.S. this year and the third deadliest ever behind the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook massacres — Sarah Pampillonia noticed an ad on Facebook for a product she’d never heard of before: a kids’ backpack that, in addition to carrying books and pencils and snacks, doubles as a shield from bullets. It took a moment for the 33-year-old mom and fifth-grade teacher to process what was she was looking at... (Read the full story here)

first, she survived a 'cult.' now she's running for office. (new york magazine)

The chicken legs wouldn’t cook right. Chelsea Savage, then 17, could feel tears welling up as she stood over the stove. She would be chastised for this, for not getting the skins crispy enough, for not pleasing the woman who ruled over her — who had Savage cook, clean, and watch her children without pay. If she lived in a world beyond the confines of a “church” where members were forced to wear Victorian-style clothes and pulled out of school, she’d be like the girls in the magazines she was forbidden to read... (Read the full story here)

What 46 Years of Fighting for Pro-Choice Abortion Laws Looks Like (New york magazine)

Ronald Yeomans, M.D., could be playing golf right now. Instead, the 75-year-old abortion provider wakes up early on Saturday mornings in the suburban house he shares with his wife of 53 years, straps a bulletproof vest to his chest, and makes the short drive to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, Kansas, where a crowd of 20 to 30 protesters is already waiting. (Read the full story here)

How Social Media Made It Okay to Talk About Sexual Assault (new york magazine)

There are many reasons women are silent about sexual assault: Telling the world you’ve been violated means having to relive that violation, and the stress and humiliation that come along with it. It means mustering up faith that your words will be met with compassion, even though history shows us time and time again that victims are often blamed, not believed. And for many women, it means finally calling that “bad thing that happened” what it actually was — rape. (Read the full story here)

our bodies, their God (New York Magazine)

Beth Moore had had enough. On October 9, the day after the release of the Access Hollywood tape where Donald Trump bragged that he could grab women’s vaginas, the evangelical author and owner of the Texas-based Living Proof Ministries tweeted to her more than 700,000 Twitter followers: “Trying to absorb how unacceptable the disesteem and objectifying of women has been when some Christian leaders don’t think it’s a big deal,” and, “I’m among many women sexually abused, misused, stared down, heckled, talked naughty to. Like we liked it. We didn’t. We’re tired of it..." (Read the full story here)

what hairstylists know about domestic violence (new york magazine)

Manhattan hairstylist Chris Mitchell says his clients talk to him about all sorts of things. Sometimes the conversation is light: what they should wear to an event that night or updates on family members. Other times, it’s more serious. “I’ve had clients speak to me about somebody being verbally abusive to them, or even someone being physically abusive in the past,” says the stylist of 20 years. In addition to cuts and colors, Mitchell acts as a sounding board... (Read the full story here)

Trans Teens on What ‘Bathroom Anxiety’ Really Feels Like (New York Magazine)

Last week, President Trump wrote a letter to U.S. schools revoking federal protections put in place by the Obama administration under Title IX — an anti-discrimination law that was used to defend transgender students’ right to use the public-school bathroom matching their gender identity. Trump’s order, which gives states the right to decide which bathrooms transgender and gender nonconforming students can and can’t use, is a sharp turn in the wrong direction for the roughly 150,000 transgender teens ages 13 to 17 living in the United States. (Read the full story here)

is it progress to elect republican women? (new york magazine)

One bright spot in these politically bleak times is the surge of Democratic women raising their hands to run for office. Much of this effort has been supported by left-leaning groups that encourage and train women looking to jump into politics — they’ve been inundated with interest from progressives who watched a politically inexperienced reality TV star win the presidency, and thought, I can do this. I can run. Not only that: I need to run. But not all of the organizations looking to help women take office are playing exclusively for the left. (Read the full story here)

White Women Sent a Terrible Message on Tuesday, Whether They Meant to Or Not (elle)

Scrolling through the posts on Pantsuit Nation, the private but not-so-secret Facebook group for Hillary Clinton supporters, it was impossible not to feel that women had this election in the bag on Tuesday. Photo after photo showed proud women in pantsuits and suffragette white, wearing "Nasty Woman" T-shirts and "I'm With Her" buttons. Many of the faces in those images—a visual majority, without question—were white. And yet, as many of those same women woke in a fog on November 9 to learn that Donald Trump had indeed done what polls had predicted to be practically impossible, another reality was revealed... (Read the full story here)

of course kid rock thinks he should run for office. he's a man (elle)

The timing screams "publicity stunt." In mid July, Kid Rock launched a campaign websiteannouncing a potential Senate run in his home state of Michigan, followed by a series of tweets including political teasers and promotion for his new songs. On the site's homepage is an image of the singer, real name Robert Ritchie, sitting in an office next to a stuffed deer and what looks like a display of high school trophies—more album cover than campaign photo. Scroll up, and a banner clicks to a separate website with tour dates, music videos, and a fan page. Scroll down, and there are T-shirts for sale below bold type that asks, Are you scared? (Read the full story here)

What it's like to run for congress against 'virginia's Trump' (elle)

Abigail Spanberger was teetering on the fence. On one side was the quiet life she'd worked hard to build after serving eight years as a CIA operative dealing with counter-terrorism efforts. A house in a Richmond suburb two miles from where she grew up. A consulting gig where she could flex her MBA. A Girl Scout troop she started for the oldest of her three daughters, with weekends spent walking her door-to-door to sell Thin Mints and Tagalongs. On the other was running for Congress—which would mean navigating her first campaign, and opening her life up for public consumption. The latter was rattling. As someone who'd spent most of her career trying to stay under the radar, she'd always been interested in elected office, but "being really public didn't appeal to me," she says... (Read the full story here)

How to have a safe abortion (cosmopolitan)

It's not that legal abortion isn't safe. It's really safe. But new laws can force women to delay care or even seek illegal abortions, raising the risks. This is the story you hope you won't need...but might want to read. (Read the full story here)

The disturbing conversations women are having on fertility apps (elle)

Scroll through the community boards on the popular fertility app Glow, and you’ll be inundated with posts about ovulation and pregnancy tests, women asking each other if the second line is dark enough to be a BFP (big fat positive), and sprinkling each other with “baby dust”—an almost Disney-esque term used to wish someone luck conceiving. But in between messages about “putting it in God’s hands” and “he can’t keep his hands off me, I love him to pieces!” are posts like this one: “This morning, my husband put his hands on me. He literally wrapped his hands around my throat and threw me on the bed… I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow to confirm my pregnancy..." (Read the full story here)

Women Look Back on Sex with Men in Charge (New York Magazine)

The recent wave of harassment allegations has increasingly exposed the way a distinct power imbalance can blur the boundary of consent. If you didn’t initiate a sexual encounter with a powerful man, but didn’t protest his advances, is he clear of any wrongdoing? What if you didn’t say no, but didn’t like what happened either? If you acquiesced at the time, but feel sick thinking about it now? In the post-Weinstein era, many women are reflecting and asking themselves these questions, and more. “I’ve been finding myself raging angry,” says Alicia, 38, who in her early 20s was in what she calls an “uncomfortable” relationship with a senior colleague. “But I don’t want to say anything, because it’s so embarrassing that I didn’t say no..." (Read the full story here)

In the Face of the Healthcare Apocalypse, the Men of Planned Parenthood Speak Out (Refinery29)

Rob Cottingham is a 5’7”, 30-year-old, 300-pound bouncer. Some of his friends say that he looks “kind of like a bulldog.” This comes in handy, considering how he spends his free time: Cottingham is a volunteer who helps escort women from their cars into the Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, South Carolina, shielding them from the mob of mostly white male protesters who tend to gather in the mornings, as early as 7 a.m.... (Read the full story here)

Tanya Mitchell Killed Her Abusive Husband to Save Herself. Did She Deserve to go to jail? (Glamour)

Tanya Mitchell's voice was frantic on the 911 call. "Why did you shoot him with a gun?" the operator asked. "I don't know," said Mitchell, crying. "He said that he was going to kill me.... No, I know he was going to kill me." Mitchell had plenty of reason to believe she was in danger: She says her husband had tortured her, that he had offered her up to members of his motorcycle club, and watched as they gang-raped her—only to beat her afterward for "allowing" the rape to happen. She recalls how he tried to rip her toenails off with pliers, and times she endured games of Russian roulette, where he held a gun to her forehead—click, click, click... (Read the full story here)

How Hard should you push for paternity leave? (GQ)

Paid leave was a hot topic in the first Democratic debate, with Senator Bernie Sanders calling the U.S.’s nonexistent federal paid-leave policy an “international embarrassment” and Hillary Clinton recalling being a working mom with a sick baby. “I know what it is like,” she said. “And I think we need to recognize the incredible challenges that so many parents have, particularly working moms.” Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley also sympathized with mothers, which is great—aside from the fact that they missed the whole other half of parenting: the dads... (Read the full story here)

Crisis in Texas: This Is What Happens When A State Closes Almost All Of Its Abortion Clinics (Refinery29)

Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Women’s Health, a group of reproductive health clinics, still thinks about the women whose abortions were cancelled last October when a series of expensive and medically unnecessary requirements were imposed upon abortion providers in Texas. "One of my staff in McAllen told me a patient called her and said, 'Let me read you all of the things that are in my kitchen cupboard, and tell me what I should use...'" (Read the full story here)

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